Literary Legacy

She underlined to understand.

Finally, I go through the books she left behind.

I couldn’t caress the courage in me to watch her come alive.

She had two copies of her favourite book.

One is for comfort, one is to surpass time.

She marked the philosopher’s monologue and I question

If these thoughts were the author’s or if it was published just for her.

She starred any courage the protagonist portrays

And it manifested into her own gritty novella

She drew a backwards question mark where she thought the story could have gone a different way

And she boxed the scorned lovers’ words that scared her,

made her feel too free.

I didn’t know there was such a thing.

I touch the corners of tattered pages. She touched these pages too.

I trace each underline with my finger,

I don’t think she ever knew

That she would leave her own her own legacy through literature

Or that I could read her through reading

A Room With A View.

Through each book I flick, I learn that she

Was never satisfied with tranquillity¹

She knew more than she thought she did˜

She never took anything on its looks, but took everything on evidence¡

And she never, ever, killed a mockingbird²

I read these books with fresh eyes,

And make my own memories.

I smiled at a line that she kept free of streaks,

Why did she not like it the way I do?

I decided it’s time to buy my own copy

Of her favourite book

Leave my own lazy legacy

And watch myself come alive

After every underline.

“Never you mind. A guy got to sometimes.”*

1 – Jane Eyre

˜ – The Picture of Dorian Gray

¡ – Great Expectations

² – To Kill A Mockingbird

* – Of Mice and Men